Week 31

Hey friends and family!

This week has been great! It's been a turn around from last week. We have had a lot of success this last week and hope to have more this week, but first I would like to talk about one of our new investigators. Her name is Wendy and she is staying with members right now and she is listnening to our lessons and she likes our lessons and accepted a day to be baptized! Well first we visited her on Monday night and had noche de hogar (FHE) with her and the family and she liked it and we invited her to be baptized and she said if she knows that its true then yes, but she would have to do a lot more learning about the church and baptism. Then we returned on Thursday with the ward mission leader and his wife and just answered her questions, and after we invited her again and she gave the same answer. Then we visited her on Sunday and she went to church and loved it and she feels like she has recieved an answer that this church is true! and she is preparing to be baptised on the 9th of May! She is awesome and has so much faith! The member that she is living with also taught her about tithing and this Sunday at church, she PAID TITHING! She's not even a member yet and she's paying tithing and doing it willingly! She's awesome!

Also last monday we got to see Meet the Mormons in Spanish! Conozcan los Mormones and I loved it! I wish we could watch it everyday!haha, it still hasn't come to Central America yet, but when it does, I'm guessing that we can use it to teach investigators too! Also my comp completed 1 month in the field on Saturday! We helped out with a ward baptism on Saturday and I gave a talk on Sunday. It was so much different then giving a talk in Zacapa and I don't know why I was so nervous. I gave a 20 min. talk without realizing it and was sweating so much, I don't know why, my talk was on how the members could help others come unto Christ and recieve the saving ordinances (something like that).

Also, there is a new missionary in my zone named Elder Sorensen and he is friends with Dane! He lives in Provo, Utah and he's super cool!

Well, also happy birthday to Lauren Jenson, Christ Tuft and Sherri Bradford!

Love you guys!

Elder Flygare

pic 1 my comps birthday and we ate mcdonalds

pic 2 a huge pinata

Week 30

Hey family and friends,

First, I'm doing fine here in Pinares and we are trying to work hard every day to have success, but this last week has been really hard. We have had a lot of lessons that have fallen, but we are trying our best to find people to teach. We have some good investigators but thats it... haha we have two solid investigators but we don't have really any more that that. I hope that these next few weeks will start to get better for us and that we will have more investigators and more people that personally they want to make the changes in their lives. But this week we put two fechas with our investigators. 1 for the 9th of may and the other for the 30th of may.  But really this week I have felt a little burdened down with trying my best to work hard and not a lot of people want to listen. But I was reading in the Ensign and I read about weaknesses and that weakness are to help us become better and to help us realize our need for the help of the lord. So I also read in

Ether 12:27 says, "my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

We will always have problems, we will always have difficulties and we will always have weaknesses, but if we turn to the lord, he can change all of it. He will strengthen us, he will lift us up and he will be their every step of the way and really all we need to do is ask in faith and humble ourselves. I have seen a change in my life, especially during the mission, as I have turned to the lord for help.

So now time to answer some questions:

Q:  How is the weather in the Capital, Cason? 

A:  Right now its not cold, but not hot. It's definetly different then Zacapa! haha

Q:  What part of Chile is your comp from?  

A:  He's from Puerto Varas

Q:  Did you guys get to email each other at the same time last week?  If so, that is a first!  Pretty cool if you did. 

A:  Yes we did, but only a little bit.

Q:  So I really want to know if you guys miss each other yet?

A:  Yes

Q:  Is it hard to be away from each other?

A:  For me yes and I know you guys are going to say that you guys were right... haha!

Well thanks everyone for the support, and your emails!

And happy anniversary to my parents!!!! on the 14th of april! 20 years!

And my comp wants to say hi to everyone and wants to send his greetings to everyone!

Love you guys!

Elder Flygare

Week 29 (April 6)

Hey family and friends,

Well, its been almost a week with my new comp and we are opening an area! Our area is called Pinares 1 and all the members are so ready to help us work hard! I'm inside the capital now in a zone called zone 18 and this is supposedly the most dangerous zone in our mission! yay for me! haha, well my new comp is Elder Alvarado and he is from Chile! he knows alot of english and he is awesome and loves to work! He wants to work hard and to learn all he can! So he's new from the CCM, but he knows so much on how to teach already! He is such a good example for me and I know he might not believe it but I think I am learning more from him then he is from me. That's the great thing about training! The trainer will always learn from the new person and it's a great opportunity to kinda shape the new missionary into the missionary that he needs to be! Also, my comp is a genious at the violin! He's incredible! He brought his violin from home and he trusted me to play it a litle bit!

Well here in Guatemala they celebrate Easter as what they call semana santa, which is holy week, and during this week, almost no one works, and they all leave to go to the beach or just leave for vacation. So this week was a little hard to open an area and not know anybody and to try to visit invesigators if they were home. Haha, but it was fun because we tried to visit the members and just get to know them more and build a good relationship with them from the beginning. So this week was conference and I can't tell you guys how much I loved it! We got to watch conference in our church and it was amazing but I only had the opportunity to listen to it in Spanish... even though I understood alot of it, I still didn't understand parts of it and tried to really focus and learn more Spanish and learn from the apostles. My favorite session had to be priesthood session! It was so powerful for me and it really hit me that all the youth really need to prepare even more now than before and it really made me think about Chace and how even though he has only 13 years, he needs to prepare now. So we ate at a members house for lunch and dinner on Sunday and the same family fed us both times! Haha, their name is family Catú. We ate a thing kind of like a tostada. I dont know how to explain it but they made alot of food and so they said I can eat as much as I wanted so I had 7 tostadas and a mango:)

Love,

Elder Flygare

Week 28 (March 23)

 Hey family!

    

     So this week was fantastic. We had the opportunity to hear from an Apostle and to hear from a member of the seventy. I can't believe how much I learned and all the little things that I need to do to have more success in this area. I am grateful for the time that Elder Anderson took out of his week to come to Guatemala and talk to us. Every missionary got to shake his hand! It was fun also to be able to go into the capital for the day, even though it was hot there too...

     So this month has been getting hotter and today was around 97 and yesterday was 98. I still feel like I am at home!;) well I mean, other than speaking a different language with a lot darker people, but the weather feels like it haha! This week has been great though! I can't wait to start seeing these blessings that we have received grow into people that love the gospel and live it everyday.

     So we have a fecha for this weekend, and I just hope that he will be completely prepared for the day! We will have about 4 baptisms in our ward with the other set of missionaries, but we also have 3 other fechas! We have two for the 11th that want to be baptized and are now ready, we just have to keep them reading and learning from the Book of Mormon and also attend church at least one more time before the 11th. I hope they attend the next two Sundays to show themselves that it is a change in lifestyle, not just a change in thoughts, but it's the best change we can make in our lifes! Maybe some people that read this might not be members and are probably thinking why do they always want to talk about religion or invite us to church or activities? Well it comes down to it, that WE, ourselves, have made these changes and have seen the blessings in our lives. We have seen how this has helped our life and we invite everyone to just see for themselves, to attend church, take the missionary lessons, read the Book of Mormon, and see what we believe instead of asking others or believing the internet.

     So also this week we went to the castle that is about 3 hours away from our house and we woke up at 4 to get ready and leave by 5. it was a long morning but we got there and I thought it was worth it! It was awesome to see this castle and to be there in all American clothing! Haha, we are just a little patriotic;) Well I got to go! I hope everyone is doing good!

Y les quiero!

Week 27 (March 17)

Hey family,

So this week is a great opportunity for us as missionaries to go and see an Apostle! We will be hearing from Neil L. Anderson and we will be going to the capital of Guatemala for this conference! I cant wait to hear the words and the inspiration from Elder Anderson. Also, this past week we fasted so we could hear something that would really apply to us in each of our areas. I'm ready for this opportunity to use these words to better myself and the work.

So this past week, was tough but instead of being sad for not having a ton of success or questioning why stuff didn't happen the way we wanted to I am happy for the blessings we did receive. I am grateful for another day I have to work harder, another day to be able to say that I tried my best and leave the rest to the lord. I am greatful for this opportunity to serve in Guatemala and to serve with my companion. I have learned a lot from him and will continue to learn and to apply this doctrine not only to the lives of others but my life too. This week we were also blessed with two people that want to come to the waters of baptism in April! These people have such a great desire to know what is right and to follow the example of Jesus Christ. They are always so receptive and want to learn more and love to ask questions. Too bad I think I will have changes in two weeks and not be able to see these people make this important step in their lives.

Also a cool thing that I got to try this week was a fruit that that is only grown in Guatemala and only grown outside the capital where it is hot. The people call the fruit, chicos or nisperos. They are weird but good. Also, about ten minutes before sacrament meeting started, me and my companion were asked to give talks! yay! Such great news to hear that you have to prepare a talk in about 30 min and it has to be about 7 min long. haha! Well to be honest I didnt think I could do it, but one thing that has really impacted me and helped me is being more humble and willing to ask for his help. He can help all of us and wants to help us. All we need to do is act and then try our best and he will make up the rest. So, after I said a little prayer in my heart. I went on looking for scriptures to help me with my theme of the talk which was, "What blessings can we recieve from reading the scriptures". so within about 5 min. I had written a little outline of the scriptures I was going to use and also the points I would like to make clear in my talk. So once I got up there to talk, I wasn't nervous or anything and I talked for like 9 or 10 min! And the best part was I did it all in Spanish;) haha without a problem!

Well thank you guys for everything. Thanks for the package and I hope that dad had a great birthday! I love you guys so much!

Elder Flygare